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Monday, 22 April 2013

Some Toronto Sun Family followers are having difficulty reading the most recent Christmas 2012 layoff casualties forum postings. Perhaps, there is a limit to the number of postings. There are 207 comments to date.

90 comments:

CRTC hearings for mandatory coverage including Sun News Network are supposed to start today. If anyone hears of any news, please post it here. As I understand it, the hearing and any decisions from it may not happen for several days or weeks so we shouldn't expect news any time soon. If Sun News wins mandatory coverage I'm sure it will end up being front page news across the Suns (288 pt. "VICTORY!" is my guess)

According to JeffGaulin.com, three Sun Media newspapers are actually looking at ADDING staff.A reporter is being sought at the Melfort Journal and the Nipiwin Journal, both papers being in Saskatchewan. They appear to be linked, as resumes are being requested in both ads by the same editor. Salary is a whole $1,000/bi-weekly.A "multimedia journalist" is also being advertised for at the Pincher Creek Echo in Pincher Creek, Alberta.It appears those in the west haven't been as badly impacted by Sun Media's cutbacks as those of us in Ontario.

Wow. I started at the Toronto Sun overnight at $250 a week, a year after I worked in Thunder Bay for the same amount. That was 1982 and 1983. I image Melfort and Nipiwin are caught in a Twilight Zone kind of time warp, say 1987, maybe 1988.

Was he asked to leave? Look how he helped Quebecor World, took it from a leader to bankrupt. Please PKP stay in Quebec, lead your province to dispair like you have your company. Poor Quebec, they will have to find the light switch in the dark. Will he take all of his yes men with him?

PKP out, he's left nothing but heartache and despair...oh and a company that has seriously poor revenue. Could it be due to the fact that everything is centralized and works so poorly that to make money would be more than a miracle, or the lack of staff members to even try to sell ads or newspapers? What a mess he's left. Last one out turn out the lights.

Did everyone read the financial report from Quebecor? WOW what a shocker, who didn't see this coming? Now everyone get ready, with such a shortfall, what will be next? I've heard already that they may look at more closures, reduced publishing days, additional centralization. Would seem the top guys are in panic mode. Won't be a restful summer.

Anyone wondering why there's not more "news" on this site should know that most of the people who used to post here are already gone. It's also commonly known that anyone caught posting here will be marked for termination.

I worked in that environment, and know that managers have a pretty good idea who might be commenting. There's certainly been a lot of speculating, and once management begins speculating about you you're done anyway.

I think people are not posting as much here because what else can be said about working for a company where morale is so low that has not already been posted here? People don't have the energy anymore. I can tell you there is not a person in our building who does not believe the sky will fall on our operation at some point in 2013

Here's the spin they put on it in Trenton:“By bringing all our editors under one roof we free our reporters to tell more stories. And now instead of having a couple reporters covering Trenton or Trent Hills or Stirling or Tweed we have eight reporters, any one of whom — or even all of whom — can be on the scene covering the news,” said (managing editor Bill) Glisky.The day-to-day reality, of course, will be different. Instead of a couple of people at close range who are ready to react to breakig news, there will be eight people viewing it at a distance, not really caring if it gets covered or not because after all, it's not the core geographical readership area any more.

17:56, I am thinking that the southwestern Ontario area is a priority before eastern Ontario. There are a couple of pockets in southwestern Ontario that have an unusually high concentration of dailies and weeklies that have still not been touched by closures

It's sad to see yet another long-time Ontario paper bite the dust. I wonder how much the folks in big city Ontario care about the damage being done in small town Ontario and whether those in Quebec could care about Ontario period.

Still nothing on their website as of Friday morning (8:45 a.m. EST). Upper management probably didn't want to bump the incredibly vital and informative "Is there a benefit to eating placenta?" story.

Actually, I'm quite surprised the website was even still up and running. A lot of papers that were closed had their websites banished from the internet only to have readers re-routed to another newspaper within a day or two of being gassed.

I find it funny that we all take so much sincere pleasure in the Sun Media demise. So many poorly thought out plans and then they sit and wonder where all the money went...wow if I could put this story to paper, it would win an Oscar. Boy starts company, gives company to son, who can't manage it, son leaves company, companies dies a slow and painful death, little kid down the block starts paper, takes all the big boys toys and lives happily ever after.

I don't know how others feel, but for me it's a matter of pride. I worked my way up through the decades, becoming quite good in my field, only to lose my job due to the incompetence of others.Many, many other excellent journalists have also lost their positions because of these bad decisions, leading to a situation where the job market is absolutely flooded. I've sent out 200 applications, gotten five interviews and no offers. Many of these applications are for jobs I could do in my sleep... and I don't even get a call. Too many people applying, thanks largely to Sun Media's contribution to the unemployment rolls.Call it schaudenfreude, or whatever... I wish nothing but ill for PKP and his band of corporate thugs.

Pillars, that's what they are calling them now. Take a team and break it into smaller parts, leave it to higher managers in other cities...sounds like success to me? No communication, no team work equals poor results. If this is what they want at head office, they are getting fantastic results.

Like every other newspaper that has been closed up and abandoned, the 82-year-old Meadow Lake Progress has already been removed from the Internet. I'm not sure how far apart these towns are, but when one types in the address for the paper in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, they are immediately rerouted to a paper in Cold Lake, Alberta.Interesting tidbit on the Cold Lake Sun website as well: Under the headline "The Sun is free," readers are advised "Effective immediately, there will be no charge for the Sun newspaper. The only cost will be for shipping, for subscribers outside of Cold Lake and area." Hopefully this isn't a sign that this paper isn't in trouble as well.

Or should I say, I hope the conversion to free distribution in Cold Lake is not a sign the paper is in trouble. I hope my haphazard edit in the above paragraph doesn't make it seem I hope the Cold Lake Sun is in jeopardy (obviously, I don't want to see newspaper people lose their jobs.)

Chatham has a new weekly newspaper starting in July. The Voice will begin publishing and will be hyper-local. Former Chatham Daily News employees have taken up the task of challenging Sun Media. Bravo!

You know, I actually tried to subscribe to my local paper. I got the call centre in God-knows-where, told them I wanted a subscription, waited a good five minutes, then was told there wasn't anyone serving that route in my area. Bam. No route equals no access to paper. I'm not buying it in the store. It's the carelessness, centralizing that is tanking our business. Well, that, along with he-who-cannot-be-named. . .

if/when this happens expect closures within 1 year readers and now advertisers are fed up with having a product that shows NO COMMUNITY shoved down their throats...guess what they don't like it and they will not buy it. What a sad end to a wonderful communication vehicle.

And so it starts. Will it be be forerunner to more centralization and more closings?Soon it will be one newspaper for the region, read it if you like, but I imagine many will not and the project will end up with closures. Sarnia, Chatham, Woodstock and St.Thomas all could become one...sooner than later. Long live Stun Media. Can any advertisers see what is happening? The readers sure have.

Give your head a shake, 1945. The Standard just moved into a building that is sufficient for its needs, but can't fit more people. What, that paper is going to break its lease after being in the new place for less than a month? The Review and Tribune buildings are just going to sit empty and Sun Media is going to continue paying taxes and utilities on shit holes in undesirable locations?

10:41 it would not be the first time Sun Media has gone in one direction and suddenly decided to charge course soon after. That just one thing that makes working for this company so frustrating --- the decision-making that is so often followed by "decision-making update Plan B" that usually happens within a short time frame after the original decision

All three Niagara papers are not moving into one building. The Standard building was sold, so they moved. The Review and Tribune buildings are still for sale with no takers so far.All three papers, contrary to the decade old rumour, are not merging into one paper. As long as all three are still profitable on their own, they'll stay on their own.

'Distribution' at The Standard and The Tribune has been 'out-sourced'. What was left of those employees are gone. Most of the Welland building is unused now. Take it form someone who knows. It's only a matter of time...

Do you think it will get to the point where Sun Media shuts down to maybe one paper? Or none? Period? Because PKP's beloved SNN pet project didn't get mandatory coverage like he begged for? Or his beloved revival of the Quebec Nordiques falters thanks to the Phoenix Coyotes staying put? Hope that won't ever be the case, but given recent developments ...

As a previous anonymous TSF poster said, this blog is only as good as its sources. It appears the majority of the reliable sources it counted on have been laid off, or have taken buyouts, since the blog was launched in 2006. The blog is more in Sun Media death mode in 2013 as we revive it to honour vets who are dying, newspapers that are being shuttered and longtime employees who are being pink-slipped. We will be here until the lights are turned out, traffic or no traffic. That is the least we can do to mark the rise and fall of the Toronto Sun and its siblings and to thank Doug, Peter and Don and the original 62 for making it all possible.

The Independent in Petrolia launched today. Respected journalist who once freelanced for Sun before those funds began drying out.In competition with the Sun's Petrolia Topic which has been sliding badly. Wonder if the Independent will publish the Topic's obit soon.

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